Did this weekend just absolutely fly by for anyone else?  I feel like in the blink of an eye – it’s already Sunday night!

Maybe it was the fact that I spent 4 hours of my day yesterday running…shall we discuss?

I woke up yesterday, ready to kick 18 miles’ ass.  The best way to start a long run day: Oatmeal.  Need extra running power?  Make it Oats in a Jar!

Quick Cook Steel Cut Oats, PB, & Mariani Concord Grape flavored Cranberries!

As I sat down at started to eat – I realized something very bad.  There was a snag in my running plans. I hadn’t gone and gotten a new chafe stick the night before – so instead of leaving for my run at 9am – I left for the store.

After a quick stop at Dick’s (and then of course Trader Joe’s, “because I was out there”) – I came home prepared, but a little bummed.  I’ve used Asics Chafe Free for all my previous runs, and LOVED IT!

Definitely looks like it’s been put through the ringer, huh?

But no one seems to carry it anymore!   So I settled with Body Glide (which now that I’ve run with it – I will say, does just as good a job!)

I got home from the store just in time to say bye to this handsome face – I LOVE when Mike wears suits, I think he gets exponentially handsomer than he already is – something I never thought possible!

Lando was sad to see “Daddy” was leaving too – she refused to come in from the porch:

Another little snag in my running plans: I haven’t done laundry since I got home from Baltimore, so I was out of socks!   Good thing New Balance was nice enough to throw some sweet running socks into our swag bags at Fitbloggin’!

I love the little “L” and “R”   I’m the sort of girl who needs that sort of thing!

Running digression ahead – feel free to skip if running bores you!

At 12:20 – I headed out for my 18 mile run…

When I came back at 4:45 – well – let’s just say it wasn’t pretty

It was definitely the worst run of my life.

By putting off my run until noon – it threw me out of whack – and I was stupid enough to not eat LUNCH before going out.  I seriously don’t know what I was thinking.

Needless to say, even having consumed 2 Gu’s already – at mile 11 – my body was saying “STOP STOP STOP STOP I NEED FUEL!”, so I swung by my parents house, made a quick turkey sandwich, and took a 10 minute break.

I actually called Mike from my parents to tell him how terrible it was going, and I did consider calling it quits.  But that’s not my style, so I set out to get at least 16 miles in (the run from my parents to my house is 5 miles, so I HAD to do at least that much).

But as mile 16 popped up on my Garmin, and I knew I was within a quarter of a mile of my house – I decided to push through and get to 18, just doing loops around my block so that if I got sick – I wasn’t very far away for help.

4 hours and 5 minutes of running later – I set another PDR – 18 miles.

All told (with pit stops for bathroom, Gu eating, sandwich making & eating, and a pathetic phone call to husband) – the ordeal took almost 5 hours.  5 hours guys.  5 hours – and if it were marathon day – I’d still have 8 miles to go.

Let’s just say, yesterday scared me. 

Once I got home, I didn’t feel sorry for myself right away though because I was SO.DAMN.HUNGRY. 

I threw two of these suckers in the microwave, along with some red potatoes:

and broke out this gem I found at Trader Joe’s:

I’d never tried these Giant Beans but I thought the sounded really good, and the ingredients were Cut the Crap Challenge compliant!

The whole mess thrown together:

Does a meal get any more “manly” than this? 

YUM!!!!!  It was the perfect post run combination, and I totally loved the jar of Giant Beans!  I’m definitely stocking up on a few jars of those next time I’m out at Trader Joe’s!

After eating – I crashed for a few hours, I needed sleep badly!  I did wake up and head over to my parents to watch the UFC fight with Mike & my brothers, but it was all pretty much done in a blur.

Off to watch movies with Mike!  Any other UFC fans out there? I don’t love it, but because all of my boys are in to it, I definitely know a good handful about the sport!

Day 1 of the Cut the Crap Challenge down!   So far so good!  And look at all these lovely people who said they’d do the challenge with me!

Kate, Beth, Alicia, Evan, Julie P, Amanda, Beth, Katie, Jayme, Kristin, Monica, Tiffany, and Rose!  

(I know some of you listed above are making up your versions – that’s GREAT – run with it! )

I guess you could say I had a nice “blank slate” to start the challenge off:

Thankfully – I got lucky in the freezer and found an Amy’s Burrito!  I read the ingredients, and thought – “GREAT – Cut the Crap Challenge SAFE!”

Except, when I was done eating it – I thought to myself “MMM, that was TOO good and creamy, there had to be cheese!”   Sure enough, like 15 ingredients in, there was “Monterey Jack cheese” that I missed reading the ingredients the first time!    Rule 2 FAIL!

I was super excited to break into this yummy bag:

Look at those ingredients!  4 ingredients and DONE – AND I KNOW WHAT EACH OF THEM ARE!  Target – you know I love you!

I used my new yummy chips as an excuse to break into this delicious sounding salsa I received a few months ago from Meijer:

This salsa is part of their newer Meijer Gold line – and I have to say – it was AMAZING!  I love that stores are starting to put out HIGH QUALITY lines to give top brands a run for their money!

The whole deal:

Quick, easy, delicious (just with a little overlooked cheese   EEK!! Let’s hope Day 2 is better!)

Last night I had SUPER EXCITING, BUT SUPER TOP SECRET PLANS!!!! I was the look-out…

…watching for my Aunt Barbara to get to my Aunt Beth’s house!  The ladies of the fam decided to throw my Aunt Barbara (or Fabulous Babulous as I like to call her! ) a surprise shower!  She just moved into her own place and needed lots of stuff!  That’s what family is for, right??

She was TOTALLY surprised! 

View Full Album

This sign says it all!

Just like any family party there was plenty to drink, including delicious jello shots!  (which thanks to the Cut the Crap Challenge, I couldn’t have any!)

Same thing went for the amazing spread of food!  So much of it looked delicious, but almost ever dish had cheese, which means me = no eaty.

I was able to find some veggies, fresh hummus, and this awesome veggie/crab (CHEESE FREE!) dip that my Aunt Ginny made!

with a side of Raspberry seltzer that I brought along so that I wasn’t tempted by the booze!

The whole fam damily

Grandma & (Great) Aunt Madeline!  So cute!

Operation Surprise Babs = HUGE SUCCESS!

Oh.My.DUH!

Guys – I left out the biggest part of the Cut the Crap Challenge (It was in there at one point, but I spent about 20 minutes fighting with the bullet points in this post, and I must have copied and pasted wrong!)

Rule #6: NO ALCOHOL!

After a booze-filled week (and if we are being honest, a very booze-filled winter) – I just want to take a few days of ENTIRELY (20 days to be exact!)

So add that on to the list, and tomorrow I’ll let you know all the lovely people who said they’d do the challenge with me, and give ya a quick recap of ALL the rules in one post!

HAPPY FRIDAY!